A well-nourished mother's breast milk is universally considered to be the optimum nutrition for healthy full term infants during the first months of life. However all infants cannot be breast fed. Furthermore, the needs of more vulnerable infants such as preterm infants cannot be achieved by their mother's milk. The synthetic infant formulas are therefore of high interest.
Lipid comprise an important part of infant formulas since they provide approximately half of the energy content, they are a source of n-3 and n-6 essential fatty acids and they are necessary for the intestinal absorption of fat-soluble vitamins. The total fat in infant formulas usually comprises 90 to 96 wt % of fatty acids (Golay et al. Journal o AOAC International, Vol 92, No 5, 2009). More recently the nutritional importance of the long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids with C20 and C22 carbon atoms (LC-PUFAs) in infant formulas has been appreciated.
The efficiency of intestinal absorption of fatty acids from infant formulas is a vital property of the fat blend. As a general principle, short-chain fatty acids are better absorbed than longer chain fatty acids, and unsaturated fatty acids are better absorbed than saturated fatty acids of the same chain length.
In order to achieve good fat absorption similar to that in human milk, infant formulas usually contain a high proportion of vegetable oils.
Medium-chain triacylglycerols (MCTs) are usually manufactured by refining vegetable oils rich in MCFAs, and they have been widely used in infant formulas till today.
The only recommendation of the European Regulations for using these MCTs in infant formulas is that lauric acid (C12:0) and myristic acid (C14:0) are to be provided, separately or as a whole, in a range of from 0 to 20% of the total fat content (Commission Directive 2006/141/EC of 22 Dec. 2006 on infant formulae and follow-on formulae).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,975 describes infant formula compositions in which the fat is issued from vegetable oil fat compositions. For preterm and low birth weight infants, MCTs are included in the composition in a total amount of 10 to 25 wt % with respect to the total fat. These MCTs are made up of a mixture of C6:0 (1 to 2%), C8:0 (65 to 75%), C10:0 (25 to 35%) and C12:0 (1 to 2%) fatty acids, derived from coconut oil. These MCTs comprise predominantly C8:0 and C10:0 fatty acids, in amounts of 60-70% of caprylic acid and of 25-35% of capric acid.
More recently, U.S. Pat. No. 5,709,888 describes fat mixtures, in particular for infant nutrition, comprising between about 4.8 to about 28.7% by weight of MCTs in total, with respect to the total fat. In some examples where the total amount of MCTs is of 7.85 to 8.0 wt %, with respect to the total fat, the amount of caprylic acid (C8:0) is around 2.35 to 2.50 wt %, the amount of capric acid (C10:0) is of 3.60 to 3.80 wt % and the amount of lauric acid (C12:0) is of 1.80 to 2.00 wt %, with respect to the total fat.
However the resultant fatty acid pattern is still distinctly different from human milk fat, which represents generally the gold standard in terms of nutrition.
Moreover, it is known that nutrition plays an important role in neuronal maturation in the brain (reviewed in Huppi, P. S. (2008); Nutrition for the Brain, Pediatric Research, 63(3): 229-233.). Specifically, clinical studies have shown that essential fatty acids are crucial to ensure foetal and postnatal brain development (Chang, C. Y. et al. (2009); Essential fatty acids and human brain, Acta Neurol. Taiwan, 18(4): 231-41; Alessandri, J. M. et al. (2004); Polyunsaturated fatty acids in the central nervous system: evolution of concepts and nutritional implications throughout life, Reprod. Nutr. Dev., 44(6): 509-38).
Thus, oral interventions are an appropriate way to positively impact on the development of the nervous system, so as to promote the healthy establishment of cognitive function and mental performance in infants.
There is a need to provide nutritional interventions that meet the nutritional needs of infants.
There is a need to provide compositions that promote and support the healthy establishment of cognitive function, during the early phases of newborn life, when the nervous system is rapidly maturing.
The present inventors have designed synthetic nutritional compositions that are especially adapted to meet the needs of infants. The compositions of the present invention have been designed to ensure the healthy establishment of cognitive function.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a synthetic infant formula useful as an alternative for infants, in particular preterm infants, and particularly well adapted for its use in ensuring the healthy establishment of cognitive function in infants.